nagpurpolice Chapter 114: A Mana on a Mission
Chapter 114: A Mana on a Mission
Chapter 114: A Mana on a Mission
Though it was tricky, Edwin was eventually able to properly give copper the mana-conducting properties hed been aiming for. It was quite the ordeal all told, with significant amounts of trial and error, where each experiment had a tremendous amount of cleanup. At least copper and molai had drastically different densities even when Refined, so it wasnt too hard to separate them out.
After so long, he couldnt help but feel satisfied watching- sensing, rather- his drops of mana soaking into the metal on contact, then radiating out again over the course of a few seconds. During that whole process, it became impermeable to other types of mana, like the behavior of the metal without the conductivity trait imbuement.
Now the only problem was making sure it would only ever accept wind mana. While he thought of several ways he might be able to accomplish that, most of them still required a mage to keep a battery topped up. For obvious reasons, that wasnt an acceptable compromise. Instead, he needed to make a self-sustaining filter.
The next step
The next step would truly test his resolve and skills, he knew.
He read through every Almanac note that he had from both the Zosiman Grimoire and his time in Panastalis alike, and all of it had led to a single, horrifying conclusion.
He could do this. Attuning an object to a type of magic was a well-documented field, and copper was especially easy. It probably wouldnt even be that technically challenging.
Hed just need to use Panastalin alchemy techniques.
Naturally, given the fact hed never successfully completed a single potion using the directions their tradition had created, this also presented a bit of a problem. However, he felt that there were just a few tweaks he could make to the procedure to make it compatible with his own brand of alchemy.
The theory was simple: hed take some of his filter-copper and attune it to wind mana permanently, by essentially alloying it to a substance which was itself air-attuned.
...except it wasnt actually an alloy despite using one in construftion, and what he was using for attunement was just the air itself, or at least condensed air mana and Well, it was complicated.
Condensing air mana was in theory relatively straightforward. Hed had a lot of practice making a manaclave at this point, after all, and a condenser was just the reverse of that. Of course, because making something hot was much easier than making it cold, especially when using Basic Thermokinesis as a base, it was nowhere near as nice and neat as it should have been.
If his mana were a gas, this would be so much simpler. Then he could just create a mana-heat pump and make a mana-refrigerator. Manafrigerator. Manerator. Manainator. Manarefrigeratorinator.
Refrigerators worked by taking a gas and almost squeezing heat out of it, putting it under immense pressure. Charles Law did as Charles Law did, raising the temperature of the compressed gas, and then thermodynamics did as thermodynamics did and let that heat bleed out of the system. That way, when the pressure was released, the gas expanded back to a larger volume, and heat would be pulled back into the system, cooling its surroundings.
If you had the right setup, you could make sure all the heat was dumped into the air away from where the cooling was happening, and that gave you a heat pump, the basis for refrigeration, air conditioning and efficient heating units.
Unless
Well, his mana did behave like a liquid most of the time. Perhaps he could set up a heat pump mana pump. Yeah, he liked that way more than manarefrigeratorinator. If he set up a mana pump based on a liquid, it might still work, hed just need to pull a vacuum around a drop of liquid which he totally could do with Apparatus, actually. Huh, yeah. That might actually work. It might not be as effective though but what about if he used a liquid that was just shy of being able to boil? Or that boiled at room temperature?
His potion-mana was flexible in that regard- hed made it both flammable and non-flammable at different times when trying to make his manaclave- so a liquid with a high heat capacity that boiled at just barely above room temperature would be an excellent refrigerant probably.
Actually, come to think of it, werent there liquid refrigerants? Memory pulled pentane to mind, as it boiled at about 35 Celsius, but he couldnt remember if it was an actually good refrigerant.
It was a pity he couldnt exactly synthesize the mana-equivalents of specific chemicals with his visualization yet, but he might get there one day. For now well, he could definitely Visualize a potion that heatlessly boiled and bubbled within its container. That would work for his purposes, he felt.
Now, he just needed to do it.
You know what I dont get?
Inion looked up, I have no idea what youre talking about.
Well, with this, he indicated the partially-assembled refrigerator, Mana is this weird thing that doesnt seem to care about pretty much any laws of physics, but it can be manipulated like its a gas.
Its your visualization.
What?
Your science stuff, and alchemy? Ya, you act as though its a thing in the world, and it behaves like it should.
Wait, it applies to mana that isnt mine?
How did you think artifacts work?
Like magic items, artifacts? I mean, I guess I assumed they were a trophy Skill or something, or the result of a Skill like Mana Infusion, he shrugged. I dont think Ive ever seen a properly enchanted item that might not just be the result of a Skill no wait, Lefi has that one tooth necklace, but it might still just be a Skill. But well, actually I suppose this is a magical item, isnt it?
Look at my little alchemist, all grown up and making artifacts, she teased.
Edwin grinned, Im glad youre proud of me, mom. You know, for someone who claims to not know anything about magic, you sure seem to have a lot of experience with it.
Comes with age, if youd respect your elders.
Elders? Forget respect, you belong in a museum.
Oh now Im supposed to go in the museum, mister Im-not-from-this-world?
At least Ill have company.
Oh believe me, youll...
Because nothing involving magic was easy, it took Edwin nearly two days of work before he actually managed to properly Visualize a mana pump that actually worked the way it was supposed to. Even then, it took a ton more work before he got it working at the proper scales. He could at least make it somewhat easier on himself by making a crystal apparatus to mirror his mana manipulation.
Of course, since he wasnt actually using any liquids or the like for this experiment, it all looked empty to the eye, but he could feel just how brimming with mana the entire contraption was. A tightly-wound coil of hollow apparatite encircled a funnel and corresponding pipe. In theory, air- and air mana- would be cooled by the mana pump, condense along the surface, and run down into a waiting collection jar.
Working with so much lab-like hardware reminded him a bit of his research, actually, which in turn idly made him wonder how people back on Earth must have been getting on without him. It had been a couple years now, after all. It was just it was just
Edwin stopped and set down the apparatite pipe he was working with. He closed his eyes, clenching his hand into a fist as he took a deep, deep breath. He breathed out into his hands as he reached up to wipe away some of the wetness around his eyes. He was fine. He was here, he was happy ish. At least as happy as hed been back on Earth, anyway. He was doing his dream job, he had friends- or close enough- he could do this.
He was fine.
He was fine.
He dried his hands with Basic Thermokinesis and picked up the pipe he was working with, holding it in place while he slowly summoned the connecting piece that would hold it in place. It was important that this was a completely airtight seal, because while it wasnt technically effective in holding in energy, his mana wasnt energy, was it? It was a potion. In this case, a near-boiling potion, but a potion nonetheless. So, airtight seals would definitely help keep his potions in place.
Edwin had actually found that he was able to manipulate far more mana than his extremely-restrictive Basic Mana Manipulation strictly allowed for, but only in very specific circumstances, among which this counted. After all, he saw mana as a potion, as an actual thing which could be manipulated. That was why this should work. If he did this with a physical setup, hed be basically making liquid nitrogen and oxygen, probably with a fair amount of ice condensing a snippet of the entire atmosphere.
How else would you condense atmospheric mana?
Finally, he got the contraption set up in its entirety. On one side, a reservoir with plenty of surface area awaited being filled by refrigerant mana. It was in turn connected to a set of tubes and pipes which snaked around the entrance to his collections flask which it would pull heat from. Then, all that would work together to condense atmospheric mana and let it drip onto a specially prepared molai flower that he was using as a makeshift battery for this experiment.
To keep the pressure differential up, and thus allow for actual transmission of heat, there were two valves attached to the entrance and exit of the reservoir, and at the entrance of the reservoir (where mana would flow after completing the full course of pipes) he combined a ball-bearing one-way-valve with a tesla one-way-valve to, well, only allow mana one way through the piping.
His role in the entire setup was serving as the vacuum pump, pushing mana from the tubing through the valves and back into the reservoir, re-pressurizing the gas into a liquid and squeezing heat out of the mana through a combination of spatial expansion and contraction (thanks to Improbable Arsenal) and raw mana muscle.
He double-checked all of his connections, ensured that everything was in working order.
He triple-checked everything to make sure nothing was out of place.
He let loose the valves, letting the mana vaporize, felt it draw in heat from its surroundings, and started repressurising mana as fast as he could manage, shoving that accumulated heat back into the reservoir..
Nothing happened.
Hmmm.
It didnt seem to be a problem with his theory- he could definitely feel heat being pushed out of the reservoir, and his vacuum pump setup was working about as well as he could hope.
Well maybe if he
Crack.
That probably wasnt good. Still, it could be worse.
Hiss.
At least it didnt explode?
Three design iterations later, Edwin finally had something that should work. Instead of trying to condense air as it passed through an open-topped container, he had a closed and sealed vessel, which he had filled with air while expanded with Improbable Arsenal. When he dismissed that Skill, it of course put the gas under pressure- about seven atmospheres if his math was right.
He wasnt sure that putting the air under pressure would make that much of a difference, but considering he was Visualizing air mana as behaving like actual air, higher pressure should result in a higher dew point for the mana.
The core mechanism of the pump remained intact, but had a few key differences, mostly centered around the actual cooling side.
The most obvious difference was that it was made out of copper. While the apparatite pipes technically worked, and were really easy for him, they didnt have the greatest thermal conductivity as well as not always being able to withstand the intense temperatures and pressures when made super thin, breaking relatively easy and wrecking a lot of hard work.
Hed thought that it shouldnt make a difference because there was no actual temperature or pressure manipulation going on, just magical equivalents like when working with his manaclave, but it seemed as though hed been mistaken for some reason. Maybe this was just too many levels of abstraction from his actual mana that he was directly controlling? Something to test in the future.
He also made a note to himself to really, really delve deeply into what the loosened limits of Sappers Apparatus did at such a high level once he left Sheraith. It was entirely possible he could get something super-strong and super-conductive if only he knew how, but copper was easy enough for now. To make his tubing, all he needed to do was create a mold out of apparatite, and pray that it didnt shatter from the thermal shock of melted copper being poured into it- though apparently Lefi had a Skill for that, because of course he did.
With the copper tubing thus formed, it was simple enough to substitute it into his existing design, but instead of being wrapped around the outside of his container, hed made it into a protruding shape from the top of his container. He wasnt actually sure if it made a difference in terms of how effective the condenser was, but it at least removed a layer of insulation and was, critically, easier to make. It also should drip directly onto his molai blossom as well, which was a bonus.
Moment of truth
Edwin filled the reservoir with refrigerant-mana, and he could immediately feel the volatile potion begin to boil. That was put to a quick stop when he pressurized the container, but came back with a vengeance as he opened the exit valve.
It really was kind of impressive, the amount of force he was able to put his mana under. To do this for real, hed need a really strong air pump and chemical refrigerants he didnt even know how to start trying to synthesize. But here he was, able to compress a refrigerant by hand and manually run an entire mana pump. His Skills definitely helped, but he felt rather proud of himself nonetheless. He supposed that this was what his mana was really good at. He couldnt use it directly most of the time, but he could use it as a lever for even more impressive feats.
Speaking of impressive feats...
Improbable Arsenal Level 4344
Prototyping Level 4548
Refining Level 4649
Ritual Intuition Level 5456
Sapper's Apparatus Level 6768
Stamina Manipulation Level 1921
Unbound Tether Level 2930
Name
Edwin Maxlin
Age
2
Race
Extraplanar Human
Class
Alchemist-Errant
Attributes
Health 25
Impact 7
Mana 37
Perception 19
Stamina 30
Skills
Alchemical
Alchemy 100, Alchemical Analysis 48, Refining 46, Alchemical Dismantling 56, Sappers Apparatus 68
(Purify: 75)
Magical
Basic Thermokinesis 44, Feys Caress 46, Ritual Intuition 56, Mana Infusion 92, Unbound Tether 30
(Flight 60), (Basic Mana Sense: 82), (Basic Mana Manipulation: 9)
Physical
Overcharge 30, Longstrider 54, Fresh Air 46
Stamina Manipulation 21, (Athletics: 81), (Breathing: 76), (Flexibility: 74), (Nutrition: 73), (Packing: 92), (Seeing: 72), (Sleeping: 73), (Survival: 76), (Walking: 74)
Mental
Numeracy 55, Prototyping 48, Anatomy 47, Polyglot: 71, Memory 68
(Language: 36), (Mathematics: 74), (Research: 50), (Visualization: 80)
Combat
Bomb Throwing 62, Adaptive Defense 49
(Throwing Weapons: 48)
Utility
Outsider's Almanac 139, Watchful Rest 44, Skillful Assessment 53, Arcadian Elixir 39, Improbable Arsenal 44
(Firestarting: 94), (Improvisation: 14), (Status: 22), (Identify: 80), (First Aid: 82), (Harvesting: 76), (Construction: 77)
Paths
Skill Points: 1156
13 60-point Paths, 12 30-point Paths
Combat
Assassin 0/60, Bomber 0/60, Giant Slayer 0/60, Heedless Hunter 0/60, Hunter 0/30, Killer 0/30, Titan Slayer 0/90, Warrior 0/60, Way of the Empty Hand 0/60, Trapper 0/60, Artillerist 0/60, Sapper 0/60
Alchemy
Alchemical Medic 0/60, Demolitionist 0/60, Makeshift Alchemist 0/60, Potioneer 0/60, Practical Alchemist 0/60, Mystic Alchemist 0/90, Essential Alchemist 0/90, Elemental Alchemist 0/60,
Science
Chemist 0/60, Experimenter 0/60, Researcher 0/60, Purifier 0/30, Scientific Revolutionary 0/90, Scientist 0/60, Engineer 0/60, Physicist 0/60, Mathematician 0/60, Material Scientist 0/60
Magic
Aerialist 0/60, Fey Friend 0/60, Feybound 0/60, Feycaller 0/60, Mage 0/60, Magical Gardener 0/60, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Primal Constructor 0/90, Primal Ritualist 0/90, Realm Traveler 0/120, Fey Supplicant 0/60, Feykind 0/90, Attuner 0/30, Schooled Mage 0/90, Mana Harvester 0/60
Mental
Dedicated Student 0/60, Lecturer 0/30, Unbowed 0/90, Canny 0/60, Steady Mind 0/60, Mentalist 0/60,
System
Almanac Administrator 0/60, Forerunner 0/60, Outsiders Almanac Specialist 0/90, Pioneer 0/60, Skill Researcher 0/60, System Scholar 0/60,
Trophy
Blackstone Conqueror 0/60, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter 0/60, Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Titan Spider-Slayer 0/60
Attribute
Artisan 0/60, Scholar 0/60
Career
Brickmaker 0/30, Butcher 0/30, Diver 0/30, Gardener 0/30, Lumberjack 0/60, Merchant 0/30, Potter 0/30, Scribe 0/30, Woodsman 0/30, Metalworker 0/30, Artificer 0/90
Physical
Ascetic 0/60, Daredevil 0/60, Physical Alchemist 0/90, Survivor 0/60, Physical Laborer 0/30, Athlete 0/60
Traveling
Escapee 0/30, Exile 0/30, Traveler 0/30, World Traveler 0/60
Medical
Field Medic 0/60, Medic 0/30, Steadfast Medic 0/60, Medical Lecturer 0/60
Misc
Arsonist 0/60, Autopyromaniac 0/60, Burglar 0/60, Child 0/12, Expert 0/60, Imperial Ally 0/60, Novice 0/12, Pyromaniac 0/30, Razer of the Ruined Tower 0/60, Rebel 0/30, Slave 0/12, Trainee 0/60, Traitor 0/60, Brushed by Power 0/60, Lirasian Citizen 0/30, Royal Advisor 0/60, Favored by Power 0/90, Insomniac 0/30, Sleepless Disciple 0/60, Student of Power 0/60
Completed Paths
CharLimitCanttalkmuchNocluewhathappenedDidmybesttohelpyouli, Mage, Skilled Arcanist, Physical Alchemist, Bomber, Linguist, Beginner, Warrior, Path Less Traveled, Athlete, Scout, Unkillable, Superior Alchemist, Adventurer, Explorer, Outsider, Skill Researcher, Wanderer,Alchemical Warrior, Novice Pyromancer, Novice Ritualist, Alchemist, Physicist, Engineer, Physical Arcanist, Biologist, Practical Alchemist, Fey Scion, Feytouched, Skilled Arcanist